what is preloading and how do I do it?

[cowmenace]

What can I preload, how do I preload, and what does preloading do? I found this and it sparked my interest...

 

[Ghostwind]

It's a way of loading all effect graphics at the start of the game rather than when they show up in spells, and thus making all the lag that happens due to these effects happen at the very start of the game rather than when you cast the spell. It's just a line of code that I can't remember off the top of my head simply because I've never actually put it to use before.

 

[cowmenace]

does it work for custom model units? How is it done in GUI

 

[Gtam]

Just codes to cast spels to and to remove preplaced units from the game

 

[Komaqtion]

You just create a trigger with the event Map Initialization, and there you create and remove every thing you want to preload, like:

• Untitled Trigger 001
  • Events
    • Map initialization
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • Unit - Create 1 Footman for Player 1 (Red) at (Center of (Playable map area)) facing Default building facing degrees
    • Unit - Remove (Last created unit) from the game
    • Special Effect - Create a special effect at (Center of (Playable map area)) using Abilities\Spells\Human\ThunderClap\ThunderClapCaster.mdl
    • Special Effect - Destroy (Last created special effect)

Just an example, which leaks, and you need to clean that up, but you might get the idea of it

 

[Chao]

My recommendation is that you do what I do: run the Map Init, but when you create special-effect-intensive triggers, have a trigger to "trigger" them (and establish caster/target(s)) that "runs" the actual FX. That way, at map init, you can establish a target and a caster and have everything run smoothly right from the get-go.

 

[cowmenace]

could this be used to reduce lag cause by using hundreds of custom-modelled units at the same time? (5 models, but lots of them)

 

[Gtam]

Yes a bit

 

[cowmenace]

so how would I do this in GUI? any actions involved for preloading let's say customunit.mdl

@one post that gave a trigger, i'm talking about the GUI command to preload a file. I saw it somewhere

 

[Chewbalka]

when theres a hundred of the same model being used it only needs to load the model and animations of it once.

 

[Ayanami]

so how would I do this in GUI? any actions involved for preloading let's say customunit.mdl

@one post that gave a trigger, i'm talking about the GUI command to preload a file. I saw it somewhere

I don't know how that GUI preload really works. I think it's pre-loading animations. I normally preload spells in my games. For example, if you use triggers to add an ability to an unit, it'll cause a brief lag. So, preplace a unit in the map with all these abilities and just remove it on map initialization. That's how I preload spells.

 

[cowmenace]

are you sure about that for custom models? cause when ppl spam them even if there's only 50, it lags insanely

 

[Ayanami]

are you sure about that for custom models? cause when ppl spam them even if there's only 50, it lags insanely

It lags insanely because there are too many units in the same area in an instance.

 

[cowmenace]

50 units? idk...

 

[Ayanami]

50 units? idk...

Well, kinda depends on your computer's performance too.